I am considering purchase of a 2006 or 2007 HCH2. By reading this forum I know that short trips are bad for gas mileage. Most of my driving consists of short city trips but there isn't much traffic congestion to deal with -- they might better be called suburban trips. A typical trip is:

Drive 2-3 miles to a restaurant. Eat lunch. 30 minutes later drive another 2 miles to a shopping center. 30-45 minutes later drive 3-4 miles home. Later in the day, drive 2-3 miles to eat dinner and then drive home.

3-4 times a week, take the interstate 7 miles to get to the other side of town - pretty steady 65 mph.

I drive 12,000 miles a year. With my current car, a 1998 Ford Taurus 3.0L V6, I average 18-19 mpg in the winter and 20-21 mpg in the summer, which is right at the city EPA milage rating for that car.

I am guessing that I would get low to mid 30's in the HCH2. But I would probably get less than 30 in a Civic EX. Based on your experience, does this sound about right? Thanks.

 

High thirties to mid forties?

No one is getting low thirties, check the database

https://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/...a-civicii.html

 

I'm going to guess 36 mpg. Hard to get less than that, unless you live in the Great White North.

And, yes, any car will get lousy mileage under those conditions. An EX certainly would not get 30 under those conditions. You need an EV!! Unfortunately, there aren't any around....

 

I would also put the guess at mid thirties. Thanks for providing such good information on your current commute.
Having said that, I think you could up your mpg if you chose to change your driving technique. And in fact, I think you may find that the HCH easily tempts you to make those changes.
Hopefully you'll get a chance to take a test drive your current route before you make the purchase. If you do, be sure to report back your test drive mpg!

 

Thanks for the replies so far. It sounds like I might get higher mpg than I had thought. That's encouraging.

Of course I secretly hoped everyone would say that if I currently get right at the EPA city rating on my Taurus, I should get EPA city on an HCH2. (I know that isn't realistic.)

 

Dale,

Where are you located? Your commuting patterns are pretty similar to mine - although I have a bunch of 15-20 mile highway drives thrown in there. If you were in PA, then in the winter I would say you're going to see low to mid 30's (temps near freezing) and in the summer you might be in the mid 40's. I'd guess 38-43 overall. If you're in a warm climate year round then definitely low to mid 40's. That is, if you can coast and don't have to start and stop every 1/4 mile!

Eric

 

All those short trips hurt your old car's MPG, but all those long trips helped it.

If you got EPA on your old car I'd guess you'd get EPA with any car.

EPA on the 2006 HCH is 50 MPG so I'd guess you'd get 50 MPG.

 

I drive a similar way with a HCHII. You will get between 35 and 40 MPG. Depending on hills and temp.

 

Eric, I am in N.E. Indiana, 40 miles from the Michigan border, so possibly similar weather to PA.

 

My typical week is this:

5 miles to work in the AM
(2 times a week short trip for lunch).
5 miles to home in the evening
(2 days a week I do a short 2-6 mile trip in the evening)
55 mile trip (another 55 mile back) on Saturday.

I don't do much special in terms of technique. I accellerate a little slower and use cruise. Some weeks I get to the weekend around 52mpg and lose .5-1 for the longer trip on Sat. Other weeks, I am around 48 by the time the weekend comes around and I gain mileage slightly.

Like was mentioned before warmer temps = better mpg. I notice that short trips don't tend to hurt as much when it is warm out than when it is colder out.

Dan